Jennie's Threads

I've had a really good month which feels like it's whizzed by! Here's what I got up: I finished a large La Passacaglia Rosette And the first of the New Hexagon Millefiori Rosette I've also worked a lot on swaps Cotton and Steel Mini Thimbleblossoms Mini Hand pieced mini swap Cotton and Steel Angel Mini I finished part 1 of My Small World and I can't wait to start part 2 - please can there be more than 24 hours in the day?  I quilted a quilt made by my mother-in-law  I started quilting my enormous City Sampler Quilt And made myself a quick bookmark

A week ago I was scrolling through Instagram on my lunch break and came across as shout out for volunteer angels for the #cottonandsteelminiquiltswap for the UK. I was so excited to finish it and get it in the post that I forgot to take my own photos, so Robin kindly sent me a few! My head said: you already have a swap quilt to finish by the start of August which you've barely started and have no drive to even get out; your Cotton & Steel stash isn't extensive; you have a 17 month old daughter and plenty of commitments; you are supposed to be decorating this weekend because new carpet is coming on Monday... My heart said: that stinks for the recipient, and when you were on the non-receiving end of a swap it was horrible. You should just volunteer and get on with it. And this time the heart won. My journey from work to home is 20 minutes and because my new partner had given such excellent information in her sign-up form, by the time I got home I had a plan. I also

I love a bit of EPP (you may have noticed) so when Jo announced a hand-pieced mini swap I couldn't resist. Now that Paula @mudpiesand pins has received her package, I can share it here with you! This one proved to be hard. I couldn't decide on a pattern, I couldn't decide on fabric... in the end I took my inspiration from an Art Gallery print which I use sparingly on the front, and then for the backing. Photo borrowed from Paula For the pattern, I settled on an excerpt from the New Hexagon Millefiori quilt and took the pattern for rosette one, shrunk it to use 2" finished hexagons (the original uses 3" finished hexagons) and then did just two rounds, rather than the full three. There were some definite learning curves in this project: to make my own templates I started with some 2" hexagon papers that came free with a magazine. They were much thinner than I'm use to and I struggled to get neat corners on some of the tight angles on the triang

I know I showed this on Wednesday, but it was not quite finished, and now it is, I felt is deserved it's own post. And some photos taken in daylight! And on a personal note, I think it will be nice for me to look back over each Rosette in the future, as each will tell it's own story... The fabric: the fabric combination in this rosette was a total accident! Aren't the best ones! I placed an order with The Village Haberdashery - there was a sale, I was using my mobile and I just picked random fabrics which I liked, and which I thought would fit well into my stash. And when I spread them out I realised that some of them went together perfectly! So I started the recollection print - the white background floral in the centre of the aqua flowers. And it just so happened that the Geometric Bliss stripe (the first round of pentagons and the centre of the outer-most stars) matched. In the same package were the two aquas which I have alternated for the pentagon flowers,

Last weekend we went to stay with my parents so we could take Mia to the zoo. We went to Whipsnade which is about half an hour from my parents, and met up with my brother and his wife. Mia walked her little legs off, the rest of us got sunburn, and overall we had a fantastic day! Whilst we were at my parents I did no stitching at all, but it's a five hours car journey each way, so plenty of sewing happened, but with it being hand sewing, there isn't much to show for it! Having finished Rosette 1 of the New Hexagon Millefiori quilt, I started rosette 3 (the paper pieces for 2 were out of stock). I've cut fabrics for the centre and first two rounds, and used the daylight we had on the journey down to start hand basting and then piecing - here's the progress so far. On the way back I decided to work on my current La Passacaglia rosette. It's so nearly finished - just a few more stars to add round the edge. I think my next steps with this quilt are to

The best scrap projects have two real purposes in my book: they reduce the huge volume of scraps I have created over the years and they create something beautiful and or useful from fabrics that have been abandoned. This month's scrap project really only fulfils one of those characteristics... there's no way I can pretend that this project made any kind of a dent in my scrap boxes!  but it is both pretty and useful. I got my copy of "Go Set A Watchman" by Harper Lee and decided it needed a bookmark. "To Kill A Mockingbird" was the book we studied for our GCSEs and I really loved  it so I'm quite excited to read this book. Pinterest is a dangerous place and I now have a board dedicated to bookmarks . I went for hexies and elastic for mine and just as soon as I fund time to start the book I'm sure it will be very useful! Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday with Leanne and Nicky

Eleven weeks ago I got the book "The New Hexagon" and about a week later I discovered the New Hexagon Millefiori quilt . Eight weeks ago I completed the centre and first round of hexies in the  first blocks and last week I finally finished it. This rosette is one of twelve designed by the author of The New Hexagon, Katja Marek. A new block is released on the  first of each month. It uses the blocks from the book, slightly altered in some cases and combined to create secondary patterns. For this block I made my own templates from card stock and glue basted the fabrics. For the next block I've ordered the pre-cut paper pieces and I'm tempted to go back to thread basting. Whilst glue basting is quick, I've found that with so much handling, some of the pieces have come out...and others set like concrete.... I've now removed all but the outside papers, and thread basted those in place. Here is my initial fabric for Rosette 3 (I'm skipping 2 becaus

Knuckle down! Here are the goals! Ambitious as ever! 1. Thimble Blossoms Mini Quilt Swap: I don't have a choice - this must be finished this quarter! I still have a way to go! 2. Thimble Blossoms Mini Quilt Swap extras: this swap has a mandatory requirement of three extras! I've decided on two hand-made and one shop-bought. I'm going to start with a zippy pouch - here are the front and back panels - the lighter patch will contain some embroidery. This used all but two pieces from a mini charm, so I'm going to use those as the zipper tabs - no waste at all! 3. Hand-pieced Mini Quilt: Also, non-negotiable. I'm madly hand-sewing to get this finished as the shipping deadline is next week and it has rather crept up on me.... 4. Hand-pieced Mini quilt swap extras: there's no mandatory requirements for this one, so I'm making a 2-in-1 pouch (pimped like the one I made for myself). It took me a while to pick the fabrics for this... but they ar